MTN Ghana is to spend US$96 million this year on infrastructure development in an aggressive move to consolidate its lead in the highly competitive telecoms market.
The company has already spent $67.5 million in the acquisition of a 4GLTE licence from the National Communications Authority (NCA), which will bring the company’s total investment in the country for the year to $163.5 million.
With a 46.43 per cent market share in mobile voice and 49 per cent in data, the telecoms giant plans to roll out its 4G service to give its customers a new digital communications speed, the company’s Chief Executive Office, Mr Ebenezer Twum Asante, said.
At the annual MTN/Editors and stakeholders’ forum in Accra, Mr Asante said: “We have solid network infrastructure in the urban areas, which can stay more than a year without any problem. Now, we are going to work with the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) to enhance rural coverage.”
Mr Asante boasted that despite the increased competition and high levels of penetration in the telecoms market, the industry leader recorded encouraging growth, with about GH¢2,315 million increased revenues and 17.3 per cent increase in subscribers.
He attributed the network’s strong subscriber growth to attractive voice and data offers aimed at subscriber acquisition and management strategies.
MTN Ghana recorded a growth in data revenue of 85.2 per cent, which has contributed 30.6 per cent to total revenue.
The company is gradually focusing on rural telephony to improve the quality of voice and data services in the rural communities of the country.
Part of the planned expenditure for this year is to improve systems network, growth and innovation and business optimisation investments and further investment on sites and upgrade of existing ones in the rural communities this year.
The provision of ubiquitous voice and data services in these communities would attract investors there to open businesses, while some companies would also expand their branches to the rural areas.
“This is also expected to provide a favourable environment for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the rural areas to thrive,” Mr Asante said.
“MTN SME Business Fairs would be held nationwide to drive awareness of ICT and digital,” he said.
Mobile money subsidiary
Mr Asante said MTN mobile money, which delivered six per cent to the company’s revenue, had been established as a different subsidiary per the Bank of Ghana (BoG) guidelines, which required telcos to concentrate strictly on mobile money business in the country.
Currently, there are six million registered mobile money customers on the network, as against over two million in 2014.
Mr Asante emphasised that in an effort to bring mobile money services to the doorsteps of subscribers, the mobile operator had entered into a partnership with a number of local banks— Access Bank, Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), Cal Bank, Ecobank, Fidelity, GT Bank, Universal Merchant Bank, Stanbic, UBA and Zenith.
MTN Mobile Money users can pay their DSTV and ECG bills and school fees, purchase airline tickets, as well as pay for goods purchased at Melcom Plus, Max Mart and other online shops.
Contribution to nation
On MTN’s tax obligation to the Ghanaian government, he stated that for every GH¢1 spent by a customer, a total of 34.5 per cent of it goes into the payment of taxes, such as the Value Added Tax (VAT), National Health Insurance Levy (NHIL), National Communications Authority (NCA) levy and other forms of taxes.
Mr Asante told the editors that in 2015 alone, MTN Ghana paid GH¢675.6 million to the government as taxes as against GH¢605 million in 2014.
MTN Ghana contributed significantly to the overall MTN Group profits for the year under review, with revenue increasing by 0.1 per cent to 146.4 billion South African Rand.
The MTN Ghana Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) wing of the telecom firm, has over the years spent over millions of Ghana cedis on numerous projects in health, education and economic empowerment across the country.